I’m starting this new blog with a true story about the very real risks of being an innovator. Hence, the term troublemaker. I have been fighting the status quo for over 30 years now, starting off as a transformation officer for the military, and ending up in my current state. One thing I’ve learned for sure, the status quo hates change and innovation. My first big realization of the risks of being a change agent came when I was a staff officer in the US Army supporting the air defense efforts of the Department of Defense. I was part of starting a new air defense system that would eventually be called SLAMRAAM (photo). This was my first big innovation, and first brush with the status quo.
Myself (then Captain Mick) and a senior Air Force non-commissioned officer named Master Sergeant Younke came up with the idea for the SLAMRAAM while collaborating with defense contractors. The SLAMRAAM would take two very successful ideas and combine them into one. We took the very agile Hummer vehicle and the super lethal AMRAAM air to air missiles, put the missiles on the back of the Hummer and made a new air defense vehicle. The Hummer was super reliable and could go anywhere, and the AMRAAM missiles were the best in dog fighting operations able to easily pick off aircraft in flight. But no one had thought of trying to use the AMRAAM missiles from the ground. The existing air defense system was the Stinger missile, a small, mobile, very effective ground weapon for close range. But it was very limited on its range. The operator had to be very close to the aircraft to engage. And a soldier could only fire one at a time. So many stingers (and soldiers to fire them) had to be deployed to support a small area.
The SLAMRAAM blew away the range of a stinger by about 500%. It could fire at multiple targets quickly whereas the existing stingers could only fire at one. And when mounted on a hummer with a slew and cue turret, it was also very agile. In early prototypes that we built and tested, it performed miraculously, showing the potential to greatly increase the lethality of our air defense forces. It had incredible disruption potential. But…here’s where the trouble comes in…
Because it was so effective, it disintermediated the existing stinger ground forces. Young Captain Mick (oh…the naivety) thought it was great news that it would drastically reduce the footprint of US soldiers, as well as save more lives. But after a big briefing to the US Army air defense general and his staff about the fantastic results from our early tests, the reception wasn’t what I expected. In fact, the General followed me into the men’s latrine, sallied up next to me, and began to talk. He told me, “Captain, that new SLAMRAAM looks good. But I’ve worked long and hard to get my troop numbers up to their current level, and if I lose force structure (he meant people under his command) because of you pushing this new idea, I’ll break your f***ing arms. I was shocked and didn’t say anything as he walked away from the urinal. I realized he was more concerned about the number of soldiers he could justify in Army air defense than he was in saving lives. I was disappointed that a General Officer would put his own position above the welfare of the service. I ignored his threat and kept pushing against the status quo.
My arms were never broken but I did have to fight the bureaucracy, and along the way caused some self-serving senior leaders problems.
I moved on in my career, and watched as others took up the SLAMRAAM baton and also struggled with the status quo. Eventually, the SLAMRAAM was somewhat adopted and deployed sporadically throughout the US military, and shared with our allies. But it took waaaaayyy too long and was fought by powers that had personal interests in mind. The tactical use of it has saved some lives but not merely as many as it should have.
And now, it is outdated and no longer transformational. That is because the senior General in charge of air defense tried didnt want radical change. This was a big lesson for me--I learned that innovators have to swim upstream, sometimes swimming alone with scarier big fish trying to eat them. I learned that senior leaders dont always have the best interest of the organization in mind.They may be mroe concerned about their next star, or their bonus.
Being an innovator and swimming upstream can be difficult. But I also know that only dead fish swim downstream.
